


Harry

by laceymcbain



Series: Shadows & Stone: Dark Spaces [4]
Category: DCU, Smallville, Spider-Man (Movieverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Boarding School, Crossover, Drugs, Flirting, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protectiveness, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-20
Updated: 2011-04-20
Packaged: 2017-10-18 10:16:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/laceymcbain/pseuds/laceymcbain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Age 15.  Harry wasn't even friends with them for Christ's sake.  He wondered when he'd become a safe harbour for Excelsior Prep's two most notorious outcasts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Harry

Harry Osborn hunched over the desk in his dorm room at Excelsior Prep and concentrated on finishing the assigned calculus problems. He rubbed at his eyes tiredly.

Suddenly there was a sharp rap at the door, the kind that demanded to be answered. Harry glanced at the clock as he pushed his chair away from the desk. It was after ten already. After curfew.

He pulled the door open a fraction, stepping back as a tall form pushed past him dragging someone else with him. Harry stared as an obviously pissed-off Bruce Wayne shoved Lex Luthor onto Harry's bed. Lex was snickering wildly.

"Bruce, what the hell--?" Harry asked, looking from one to the other.

"Keep him here," Bruce said tersely, heading for the door. "If he tries to leave, sit on him."

Lex grinned and flopped onto his back. "You know what I like, Bruce."

"On second thought, just knock him out."

"Bruce, what's going--" Harry's words were lost in the slam of the heavy mahogany door. Speechless, Harry turned around to look at Lex. He was stretching like a cat across Harry's single bed, and looking at him curiously. His blue eyes were wide, pupils large and glassy. Harry wondered if he was drunk or high. Either one was possible.

"Lex?" Harry ventured. Lex just grinned and rolled onto his side. Harry thought he saw a momentary flicker of pain, but it was gone in an instant, replaced by predatory charm. Lex patted the bed beside him and raised an eyebrow invitingly. Jesus, Harry thought. That's all he needed. Lex Luthor, high and horny.

"What's going on, Lex?" Harry said, leaning back against his desk, a safe distance away. It was a single room, though. There wasn't anywhere to go--which begged the question, why the hell had Bruce brought Lex here? Sure they were in the same classes, but they weren't exactly friends.

"Bruce thinks I can't take care of myself," Lex said glibly. "Thinks I need a babysitter, so I don't get in any more trouble."

"What kind of trouble are you in?" Harry asked. He really didn't want to know, but he couldn't ignore the fact that Lex was here in his room. After curfew. If he was going to get in trouble, he may as well know why. He didn't suppose it would be polite to go back to working on his calculus and just pretend that Lex didn't exist.

Lex shrugged and waved a hand vaguely in the air. "There was a misunderstanding about product supply and demand."

Ah, so it was drugs. Lex had a reputation for using his chemistry expertise for more intriguing experiments than those set by Mr. Farnsworth, the chemistry instructor. But Lex wasn't like the other kids Harry had known who tripped out on cocaine and pot.

"You used up someone's supply, Lex?"

Lex wasn't typically a user, wasn't even a dealer. He liked the thrill of the chemistry. The challenge of creation. Lex in a laboratory brought to mind every mad scientist movie Harry had ever seen--even without the crazy hair. All Lex needed was a long white coat and an assistant named Igor to complete the picture. There was just something so focussed about Lex when he was experimenting, something raw and open and dangerous. Yeah, that's what Lex was--dangerous.

As far as Harry knew, Lex rarely used the stuff he made. He could only recall a handful of times that he'd ever seen Lex tripped out on drugs, and he had to admit that there was nothing casual about Lex and drug use. If he was on something, he wasn't just on it--he was immersed in it. Lex didn't get high, he left the planet. He'd heard rumours about Lex's more spectacular highs. After his mother died. After his nanny left. Sometimes now after calls from his father, visits home, you could see the light gone out of his eyes--a glimmer of something else working there, something trying to keep the world at bay.

Harry wasn't close to Lex--no one really got close to him, except Bruce--and that was another reason not to get involved. Bruce Wayne scared the shit out of most people who got a glimpse of what lay beyond the dark good looks, the charm, the money.

Harry glanced at Lex again. He was lost in his own world, and it didn't seem to be the happy world of hallucinogenic drugs. Harry tried again.

"Drug deal gone bad?"

"Something like that." Harry could see that wasn't even the beginning of a story. He was fairly certain that Lex wasn't going to volunteer any specifics.

"Is the chem lab still intact?"

"Mostly."

"What happened?"

"They got pissy about the quality and I didn't like the criticism, so I terminated the deal."

Harry cringed. That could mean anything. Luthors weren't exactly known for their warm and fuzzy personalities.

"How?"

"I flushed the drugs." Lex laughed. "You should've seen the looks on their faces." Harry could imagine. Lex never did anything small or halfway.

"Looks like you sampled some before you flushed them."

"It would be irresponsible not to test the product," Lex said simply, his eyes darkening. He looked more tired than he had a minute before, and his breathing seemed to rise and fall in uneven waves. His hand rubbed at his side unconsciously. He seemed distracted. Worried. Harry tried to remember how long it had been since Bruce had left.

"I should go," Lex said, suddenly getting off the bed and heading for the door. Harry surprised himself by stepping in front of him.

"Bruce said you should stay here." He hated getting dragged into the middle of things, hated being caught in the peripheral damage that seemed a given around Bruce and Lex. He wasn't even friends with them, for Christ's sake. He wondered when he'd become a safe harbour for Excelsior Prep's two most notorious outcasts. And what exactly did that say about him?

"Bruce says a lot of things," Lex said, his eyes catching Harry's with a look he couldn't quite place.

"I'll have to take your word on that," Harry said. Bruce wasn't exactly known for being chatty.

Lex offered a pleased smile, and Harry wondered, not for the first time, what Lex and Bruce's relationship was really about. They'd been roommates for as long as Harry had been at Excelsior, but half the time he couldn't tell if they were friends or just waiting for the right opportunity to kill each other. Then there were the other rumours. He'd mostly given up trying to figure his classmates out, just wanted to survive Excelsior without getting kicked out. He was trying to keep a low profile. This time.

Lex pushed closer, sliding a finger under the collar of Harry's button-down shirt. Harry took a step back and found he was pressed against the door.

"Lex," Harry began, but he didn't know what he was trying to say. Lex was so intense it was hard to concentrate on anything outside those blue eyes. He didn't just look at you, he seemed like he was trying to absorb everything about you through the sheer strength of his gaze. Harry didn't particularly like being subjected to that level of scrutiny. He fought down a tremor of fear.

"What's the matter, Harry?" Lex said, putting a hand against the door beside Harry's head. Harry swallowed, as Lex stepped against him. "Scared?"

Harry laughed, but even to him it sounded hollow, forced--like a drum beaten without conviction. Every muscle in his body felt tight, alert. He could see the scar on Lex's lip, quivering and white, like a tiny worm burrowing through an apple's red skin. He wondered why Lex seemed to bring to mind serpents, temptation.

"I'm not scared of you," Harry returned, trying to sound confident.

"Of Bruce then?"

Well, yeah, everyone with a brain in his head was at least a little scared of Bruce. At fifteen he was already well-over six feet and deeply muscled. That in itself wasn't enough. What made people take a step back was the haunted look in his eyes. It didn't make sense but it made people feel guilty. Ashamed. Afraid. As if something dark had crawled inside and started to gnaw at your secrets. Bruce was ... disconcerting, to say the very least.

"Scared of Bruce? Maybe a little," Harry said breathlessly, relieved when Lex started to laugh. Lex backed away and sat down on the edge of the bed, running his hands over his bare scalp.

"You're smarter than I thought, Harry."

Harry decided it wasn't worth it to be offended. Lex and Bruce were both brilliant, even if they didn't get the top marks. They knew things that went beyond what was laid out in the books. They didn't just think outside the box--they had constructed entirely new paradigms for the idea of the box.

"What's Bruce doing?"

"Probably kicking somebody's ass on my behalf," Lex said. For the first time, Harry realized that Lex was breathing raggedly, one hand rubbing his side absently.

Harry dropped to his knees beside the bed, and started to unbutton Lex's shirt.

"Harry, I had no idea," Lex said smugly, but didn't protest.

"Shut the fuck up, Lex," Harry said as he pulled the shirt open to reveal the beginnings of bruises in the shapes of knuckles. Harry ran a hand lightly over the skin on Lex's right side, softening his touch as Lex winced sharply.

"You've probably got a couple of bruised ribs," Harry said. "Did you know that?"

Lex shrugged. "I suspected."

"You need a doctor."

"Toby? I'll get a lecture, a smack in the head, and drugs that aren't as effective as what I make myself. He'll feel the need to report this to the head master, who will in turn call my father. I can do without that, thank you. Nothing's broken."

"At least let me wrap it for you," Harry said. Lex looked at him oddly, and Harry guessed he was trying to figure him out.

"Bruce'll do it. It's fine, Harry. Really. You've done enough," Lex said. "But thanks for the offer." It seemed almost like an afterthought, as if Lex wasn't used to people offering to do things for him. Harry nodded, but didn't move away.

The door behind them opened, and Bruce Wayne filled the small room. His eyes flickered over Harry, who was still on his knees in front of Lex, one hand on his pale skin, and Harry suddenly blushed, realizing how this might look. Bruce didn't look amused, although that was nothing new. Harry wasn't certain Bruce knew how to look amused. He scrambled to his feet and grabbed the first aid kit that was supplied with every room. Apparently the school had little faith in teenage boys.

"He's hurt--his ribs," Harry said by way of explanation, pulling out a roll of bandages.

Bruce looked at Lex with a sigh, and shook his head. "I'll take care of him," he said, taking the bandage that Harry offered. "Sorry for getting you involved."

"It's fine," Harry said, and was surprised that he meant it. He'd never had a lot of friends at Excelsior. He wasn't charming enough or smart enough or even rich enough to really fit in. Hell, he wasn't even weird enough to be an outcast. He was just one of the invisible mainstream. The unremarkable.

"Any time," he added.

Bruce looked at him as if he were taking measurements. Perhaps he was. Bruce nodded an acknowledgment, and put a hand on Lex's shoulder. "Ready?"

"Yeah," Lex said, and Harry could see the glassiness had faded from his eyes. Despite the pain he must have been feeling by now, his steps were steady as he followed Bruce out the door.

"Thanks," Lex whispered, as he ducked out into the hallway.

Harry closed the door softly behind them and sat on the edge of his bed. It was warm from where Lex's body had been a moment ago. He didn't know why, but he suspected something important had just happened. Something in his life had changed and he didn't know if it was for the better or not.

Things got broken around those two. Rules. Furniture. Bones. Hearts. He wasn't sure if he was ready for friendship like that. He wasn't sure if he had a choice in the matter. They had come to him. That meant something, although Harry wasn't sure what.

He looked at his unfinished calculus homework and sighed, dragging himself back over to the desk. At least there were answers here. Specifics. Problems that could be solved, variables that could be defined.

He picked up his pencil, and went back to work.

 

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> For more information on the complete series, please see the first story in any of the _Shadows & Stone_ series.
> 
> Originally posted in 2004.


End file.
